Behemotops
Sign in to saveBehemotops (from the Biblical monster Behemoth, by Linnaeus and others believed to be a hippo) is an extinct genus of herbivorous marine mammal. It lived from the Early Oligocene (Rupelian) through the Late Oligocene (33.9 mya—23 Mya), existing for approximately . It is the most primitive known desmostylian, believed to be close to the ancestry of all other desmostylians.
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7 sectionsContents
- Description
- Formerly placed in ''Behemotops''
- History of discovery
- ''B. proteus''
- ''B. katsuiei''
- Notes
- References
Behemotops (from the Biblical monster Behemoth, by Linnaeus and others believed to be a hippo) is an extinct genus of herbivorous marine mammal. It lived from the Early Oligocene (Rupelian) through the Late Oligocene (33.9 mya—23 Mya), existing for approximately . It is the most primitive known desmostylian, believed to be close to the ancestry of all other desmostylians.
==Description== In comparison with later known desmostylians, Behemotops had more elephantine tooth and jaw features. It had cusped molars that more resembled those of mastodons or other land ungulates than those of later Desmostylus, which exhibited odd "bound-pillar" shaped molars which may have evolved in response to the grit from a diet of sea-grass. Discovery of Behemotops helped place desmostylians as more closely related to proboscideans than sirenians, although relationships of this group are still poorly resolved.
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